Since I haven’t taken the time to get the observatory up and running for quite a while, I have instead done some night photography with my Sony RX100. To that end, I acquired an iOptron Sky Tracker Pro tracking camera mount. It is a great device, complete with polar alignment scope and internal battery.

I took two nice Milky Way shots on my first night imaging on September 4th. The first shot is looking directly overhead. The bright star toward the top of the image is Vega, Deneb is near the mid point on the left, and Altair on the right. This is one three-minute exposure processed in Adobe Lightroom. (Lightroom is an absolutely amazing product.)

The second shot is in the south, with the galactic center in the middle of the frame. The three bright stars on the mid-right of the image are actually two planets and a star. Saturn is on the top, Mars on the left, and Antares under Saturn. This is also one three-minute exposure processed in Lightroom, with some obstruction removal in Photoshop.

Click on the images to be taken to the detail page in my photo gallery.